Media complicit in Barnes fibs over Bush Guard Service
By Phil Magness
One week ago Chronically Biased exposed the fact that former Texas politician Ben Barnes, who is now waging allegations against President Bush’s national guard service, can’t even get his own story straight. Barnes claims to have used the Texas Lieutenant Governor’s office to secure a spot for Bush in the Texas Air National Guard despite the fact that Bush entered the service almost a year before Barnes even won that post.
Naturally, the same media establishment that gave John Kerry a pass over his claim that Richard Nixon secretly sent him into Cambodia a month before Nixon’s inauguration has accepted the Barnes fib without question. Barnes will be featured tonight in a nationally broadcast interview with Dan Rather where he is expected to restate the same allegations against Bush.
A quick review of the media’s coverage of this event reveals full fledged complicity in spreading Barnes’ fib through both inferences and direct assertions that contradict his known term of office as Lieutenant Governor. Other sources have even reprinted Barnes’ claim without so much as even mentioning that he wasn’t Lieutenant Governor at the time he claims.
Here’s a brief roundup of the stories leading up to Rather’s interview.
The Washington Post:
A senior Texas politician has told close friends that he recommended George W. Bush for a pilot’s slot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war because he was eager to “collect chits” from an influential political family. The reported comments by former Texas lieutenant governor Ben Barnes add fuel to a long-running controversy over how Bush got a slot in an outfit known as the “Champagne Unit” because it included so many sons of prominent Texans.
The UK Independent:
The first salvo is due to be fired on CBS tonight, when Ben Barnes, a Democrat and the lieutenant governor of Texas in 1968, will explain his role in securing for the 22-year-old Yale graduate Bush a coveted place in the state’s Air National Guard - a unit so full of the sons of Texas’s rich and powerful that it was known as the “Champagne Unit”.
Salon.com:
Ben Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Texas, will finally break his silence and talk to the press about what role he played in helping Bush get a coveted slot in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968. Sources say Barnes has already sat down for a “60 Minutes” interview that will air next week. A “60 Minutes” spokesperson declined to comment, saying the program does not discuss reports that are in progress. Barnes made headlines last week when his videotaped comments that he was “very ashamed” of getting Bush into the National Guard began circulating on the Web.
Dallas Morning News/KHOU:
“The latest battle in this year’s presidential political war is another fight over a 30-year-old war.
The former Lt. Governor of Texas now admits he helped George W. Bush get into the National Guard during Vietnam.
Implications that George W. Bush benefited from using influence to get into the National Guard slot — that kept him out of Vietnam — surfaced years ago. But now, a popular click on the Web is a video of former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes.
”See, I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard when I was the Lt. Governor of Texas and I’m not necessarily proud of that,“ says Barnes.”
All of this makes for a convenient story if you’re a Kerry supporter except, again, for one pesky little fact: Ben Barnes was not Lieutenant Governor in 1968 when Bush joined up. He was a lame duck Speaker of the House seeking election as Lite Guv in a year when the legislature was out of session and when he appears to have spent an extended period overseas on a UN job for LBJ.
Of course the most bizarre lie to emerge so far comes from Democrats.com, an “unofficial” Democratic Party organization that was set up four years ago by a bunch of ex-Clinton administration insiders including John Kerry’s new pollster Stan Greenburg. Democrats.com, it seems, doesn’t want you to know that Ben Barnes is heading up their nominee’s fundraising projects in Texas so they’re claiming that he’s a Republican!
Ben Barnes, a Republican who was first the Texas House Speaker and then later Texas’s Lt. Governor, came forward to confess that he helped Bush and other privileged young men get into safe, cushy spots in the National Guard during Vietnam. By giving these young men these slots, Barnes acknowledges that he, in effect, sent other, less privileged young men to their deaths.
All of this hints upon another question that’s certainly fair game considering the nature of Barnes’ allegations. Exactly why is the media giving any credibility to Ben Barnes in the first place? The ENTIRE story is based on Barnes’ word against anybody elses and, quite frankly, Ben Barnes isn’t exactly the most credible source in the world. In fact, Ben Barnes’ undisputed 40 year track record of corruption, shady business arrangements, and fibs concocted for political gain is enough to put an ex-Soviet cleptocrat turned third world arms dealer to shame.
There is some good news to all this though. When the Democrats are turning to a disgraced political cockroach who is best remembered for getting booted out of office by the voters over his central role in the Sharpstown Stock Scandal we know that they’re getting desperate!
September 08, 2004, 10:01 AM
Media complicit in Barnes fibs over Bush Guard Service
By Phil Magness
One week ago Chronically Biased exposed the fact that former Texas politician Ben Barnes, who is now waging allegations against President Bush’s national guard service, can’t even get his own story straight. Barnes claims to have used the Texas Lieutenant Governor’s office to secure a spot for Bush in the Texas Air National Guard despite the fact that Bush entered the service almost a year before Barnes even won that post.
Naturally, the same media establishment that gave John Kerry a pass over his claim that Richard Nixon secretly sent him into Cambodia a month before Nixon’s inauguration has accepted the Barnes fib without question. Barnes will be featured tonight in a nationally broadcast interview with Dan Rather where he is expected to restate the same allegations against Bush.
A quick review of the media’s coverage of this event reveals full fledged complicity in spreading Barnes’ fib through both inferences and direct assertions that contradict his known term of office as Lieutenant Governor. Other sources have even reprinted Barnes’ claim without so much as even mentioning that he wasn’t Lieutenant Governor at the time he claims.
Here’s a brief roundup of the stories leading up to Rather’s interview.
The Washington Post:
A senior Texas politician has told close friends that he recommended George W. Bush for a pilot’s slot in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam war because he was eager to “collect chits” from an influential political family. The reported comments by former Texas lieutenant governor Ben Barnes add fuel to a long-running controversy over how Bush got a slot in an outfit known as the “Champagne Unit” because it included so many sons of prominent Texans.
The UK Independent:
The first salvo is due to be fired on CBS tonight, when Ben Barnes, a Democrat and the lieutenant governor of Texas in 1968, will explain his role in securing for the 22-year-old Yale graduate Bush a coveted place in the state’s Air National Guard - a unit so full of the sons of Texas’s rich and powerful that it was known as the “Champagne Unit”.
Salon.com:
Ben Barnes, the former lieutenant governor of Texas, will finally break his silence and talk to the press about what role he played in helping Bush get a coveted slot in the Texas Air National Guard in 1968. Sources say Barnes has already sat down for a “60 Minutes” interview that will air next week. A “60 Minutes” spokesperson declined to comment, saying the program does not discuss reports that are in progress. Barnes made headlines last week when his videotaped comments that he was “very ashamed” of getting Bush into the National Guard began circulating on the Web.
Dallas Morning News/KHOU:
“The latest battle in this year’s presidential political war is another fight over a 30-year-old war.
The former Lt. Governor of Texas now admits he helped George W. Bush get into the National Guard during Vietnam.
Implications that George W. Bush benefited from using influence to get into the National Guard slot — that kept him out of Vietnam — surfaced years ago. But now, a popular click on the Web is a video of former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes.
”See, I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard when I was the Lt. Governor of Texas and I’m not necessarily proud of that,“ says Barnes.”
All of this makes for a convenient story if you’re a Kerry supporter except, again, for one pesky little fact: Ben Barnes was not Lieutenant Governor in 1968 when Bush joined up. He was a lame duck Speaker of the House seeking election as Lite Guv in a year when the legislature was out of session and when he appears to have spent an extended period overseas on a UN job for LBJ.
Of course the most bizarre lie to emerge so far comes from Democrats.com, an “unofficial” Democratic Party organization that was set up four years ago by a bunch of ex-Clinton administration insiders including John Kerry’s new pollster Stan Greenburg. Democrats.com, it seems, doesn’t want you to know that Ben Barnes is heading up their nominee’s fundraising projects in Texas so they’re claiming that he’s a Republican!
Ben Barnes, a Republican who was first the Texas House Speaker and then later Texas’s Lt. Governor, came forward to confess that he helped Bush and other privileged young men get into safe, cushy spots in the National Guard during Vietnam. By giving these young men these slots, Barnes acknowledges that he, in effect, sent other, less privileged young men to their deaths.
All of this hints upon another question that’s certainly fair game considering the nature of Barnes’ allegations. Exactly why is the media giving any credibility to Ben Barnes in the first place? The ENTIRE story is based on Barnes’ word against anybody elses and, quite frankly, Ben Barnes isn’t exactly the most credible source in the world. In fact, Ben Barnes’ undisputed 40 year track record of corruption, shady business arrangements, and fibs concocted for political gain is enough to put an ex-Soviet cleptocrat turned third world arms dealer to shame.
There is some good news to all this though. When the Democrats are turning to a disgraced political cockroach who is best remembered for getting booted out of office by the voters over his central role in the Sharpstown Stock Scandal we know that they’re getting desperate!